“That is restoring a human being. If that person has memory, I would be freaking out completely.”

Doing so would open up a huge ethical discussion, and for that reason Dr Sestan did not elaborate on the results, choosing to keep the majority of the findings secret until they are published in a scientific journal.

Dr Sestan explained the results to an audience at a meeting at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Maryland where he described the results as “mind-boggling” and “unexpected”.

He added that the technique could work on a number of species, including humans: “This is probably not unique to pigs.”

Steve Hyman, director of psychiatric research at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and someone who was briefed on the study beforehand, told MIT Technology Review: “These brains may be damaged, but if the cells are alive, it’s a living organ.

“It’s at the extreme of technical know-how, but not that different from preserving a kidney.”

Mr Hyman also implied that the outstanding study could lead to life-extending practices for humans.

He said: “It may come to the point that instead of people saying ‘Freeze my brain,’ they say ‘Hook me up and find me a body’.”